CURIOSITY.
CURIOSITY is a defect that seems to be particularly inherent to the
heart of woman, and which, when not properly governed, never fails to
entail the most disastrous consequences. Through it they have
frequently acquired a knowledge of evil and a disgust for virtue. You
are well aware that curiosity was the door through which sin and
death enter the world; that when the devil sought our destruction he
made use of woman's curiosity. Now, it is well not to lose sight of
the fact that woman is always the daughter of Eve. She feels a
pressing desire to see what pleases the mind, flatters the senses,
and enlivens the imagination. Eager for vivid emotions, she seeks
them with an insatiable avidity; and, rather than feel nothing, she
prefers painful emotions, finding a certain secret charm even in the
fits of sorrow and pains of her imagination. Her great desire to see
and hear whatever tends to excite or create emotion is in a great
measure the source of her curiosity. The education that women for the
most part receive develops this disposition of the heart: an
education which, instead of elevating the mind and giving it a taste
for serious things, narrows it, and accustoms it to feed upon
aliments that are trivial and void of consistency. The mind requires
to he kept in constant activity, and since thoughts alone can do this
they should be such as to amply furnish it with solid and wholesome
food, for all kinds of thoughts are not equally good for it, no more
than all kinds of food are equally good for the body. In some kinds
of food the quantity and quality of nutriment are much inferior to
what they are found to be in other kinds. Hence greater moderation is
required in the use of the latter than in that of the former,
otherwise the stomach, overcharged, would soon become disgusted with
it.
On the other hand, no quantity of food void of nutritious qualities
will ever appease hunger. The same thing may be said of the kind of
thoughts with which the mind is fed; some are used less for their
sound and wholesome nutriment than for their efficiency to flatter
sensuality, inflame the passions, create new wants in the heart, and
excite a depraved curiosity. Under this regime the mind is starved
and tortured by an incessant hunger. It sadly languishes and pines in
the grip of famine; and all this in the midst of full and plenty, but
this abundance contains no nutriment, it is made up of news, whether
true or false, which amuses without satiating; still the mind enlists
the service of the senses to gather it up from all sides. The eyes,
continually gaping and watching what passes before them, present the
mind with numberless images to amuse it in its weary or lonesome
moments.
Hence that insatiable thirst to see and observe every thing, that
inconstancy and want of changing from one place to another, that
desire to read useless and frivolous books, novels, weeklies and
magazines, which for the most part enervate the mind by their
futilities, trouble and darken it by a multitude of incoherent images
and contradictory thoughts, and poison the heart by foul and filthy
images that will constantly torment the soul.
The ears are on the alert to catch every report, every murmur, all
kinds of news, detractions and calumnies, stories and scandals. I say
all kinds of news, no--I make a mistake, it is only such news as is
of an exciting or startling nature to break up the monotony of life.
Hence those indiscreet questions which provoke answers more
indiscreet still; those rash revelations made by thoughtless young
ladies, those prying efforts to discover things which only exist
perhaps in their own imagination, and of which they should live in
holy ignorance.
Hence those long conversations, discussing the vices and evil doings
of others, in which justice and charity are discarded, and iniquity
drank like water. Few forego the criminal satisfaction of
participating in those detestable conversations, and fewer still,
alas! reproach themselves at night for the detractions and calumnies
committed, permitted, or provoked during the day, and by a monstrous
union they couple with those deeds the external practices of piety.
This is but a feeble picture of the frightful condition of a mind
starved for want of solid and wholesome food, and poisoned by the
empty frothings of vanity and passion. Curiosity is the constant
companion of this mediocrity of the mind and poverty of the heart. In
order to avoid this fatal rock, no pains should be spared, and if,
unfortunately, you have already drank at its poisoned sources, hasten
to use every available means to arrest its ravages. To insure
success, do not amuse yourself with lopping off the branches of the
evil, allowing the root to remain, do at once what is essential: feed
your mind and heart with a genuine love for the true and beautiful.
A frivolous woman is invariably curious, and a curious woman always
finishes by becoming the dupe and victim of her curiosity. To
overcome an inordinate love for sights and news you must accustom the
mind's eye to feast on the panoramic beauties of nature, and confine
yourself to the company of persons of your own age, in whom you
remark an elevated mind and heart,--lovers of what is truly good and
grand.
Curiosity has its source, also, in another defect which becomes
daily more and more prevalent--it is a want of forethought and
reflection, arising from a volatile and frivolous mind. Few, indeed,
are lovers of the interior life; all seem to be bent on parading the
mind and heart, the imagination and senses. Now, when man has not
learned the art of living and conversing with himself, he becomes
wearisome and sometimes dangerous to himself when alone; because the
mind, not knowing how to occupy itself, and not finding in its own
resources the thoughts that elevate and nourish it, is obliged, in
order to avoid lonesomeness, to dwell upon images which at least
distract and weaken it, and not unfrequently disturb the peace of the
heart.
Religion, always inspired by God in the choice and formation of the
terms which it employs to convey the ideas that it wishes to impress
upon the heart, has invented two words, which admirably express the
meaning of the concentration of the faculties of the soul,--in other
words, that society or cohabitation of man with himself--they are
_self-composure and recollection._
These words express that state or power of the will by which it
holds complete control over all the faculties of the soul; so that
sensibility can have no command over any of their operations. Thus
shielded from this turbulent disturber they are enabled to labor
peacefully and efficiently in their interior province or the soul.
The advantages secured by interior recollection are so great and the
consequence of its absence so prejudicial that the Holy Ghost
distinctly declares its absence to be the cause of all the evils that
desolate the earth. _"With desolation is the earth laid desolate
because there is no one who thinketh in his heart."_ This is a
terrible truth, but it is not the less real on that account. To be
convinced of this you need only descend into your own heart, and you
will soon discover that the want of interior recollection has been
the cause of the most of your faults. It is during the interior
composure of the soul's faculties that we understand what the Lord
says. _I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me, for he will
speak peace unto them that are converted to the heart._ (Psalm 84.)
But if we find nothing in the heart but trouble and obscurity we
must naturally find many pretexts to justify our preoccupation with
external things; and like a man, finding his house the abode of pain
and displeasure, remains away from it as long as possible, we, too,
will shun as far as possible the scene of our misery. It is,
therefore, of most vital importance for you to form in your own heart
an agreeable and useful society with which you can always converse.
This society you carry with you wherever you go, for you are with
yourself at all times; and since you have not always the satisfaction
to enjoy the company of others you should learn how to turn to good
account this privation by making it an incentive to cultivate with
industry an agreeable society in your own heart; and the best way to
insure the success of this work is to accustom yourself to converse
with God who is always present in your heart, except when you expel
him by mortal sin.
The work itself must be made up of pious readings, meditation and
prayer, which will furnish you with such thoughts and affections as
will prove to be constant friends in pain as in joy; hasten to amass
these honeyed treasures during the noon-tide of life; for the winter
will soon come upon you, the flowers of life shall lose their perfume
and their withered corolla shall be strewn on the ground. Then you
will not have time to enrich the soul with the longed-for booty when
you will be reduced to the miserable condition of those women who
endeavor to conceal the poverty of their mind and heart by a foolish
and puerile deception.